Felipe Massa admits that poor performance was a result of uncertain Ferrari future – Formula 1 news
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has admitted that his poor performance during half of the 2012 F1 season was due to the uncertainty that surrounded his future with the team.
“In the first half of the year, I was worried about renewing my contract,” Massa said at Ferrari's World Finals event at Valencia on Sunday. “I did not think that Ferrari would really wait right to the end of the summer before deciding on the driver line-up
for next year. It's true that ever since I've been at Maranello, there have always been rumours about me. Already in my first year there was a list of drivers who were supposed to take my place and it was the same this year, with a lot of names and plenty
of speculation.”
He said that in the beginning he was under too much pressure as he was constantly thinking about his future but then in October, he stopped thinking that way and started to enjoy his driving.
Massa added that with his improved results towards the end of the season, he is feeling much more confident about his own as well as Ferrari’s future.
Ferrari Boss, Luca di Montezemolo, had been worried as well about the lack of performance by Massa and it was being speculated that he might not be able to retain his seat with the team.
However, Massa improved his performance and proved that he was still in form. Ferrari confirmed his contract for another year soon after. Ferrari has said that they completely trust Massa to continue his improved performance.
The driver proved his good form with the last two races of the season that took place in United States and Brazil respectively. In both races, Massa qualified in a better position than his championship contender teammate Fernando Alonso.
He finished fourth in the United States GP and third in his hometown during the Brazilian GP; both times finishing right behind Alonso. Massa had also played a very important role to help increase Alonso’s chances of winning the title as he agreed to deliberately
break his gearbox earning himself a penalty.
Tags: